The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports how Transport Minister Joe Mizzi has removed the two tier bus fares system.
The Malta Independent says there is confusion at Mater Dei in the operation of the new Patient Administration System.
In-Nazzjon reports that the government has not said how much the bus service transition is expected to cost.
l-orizzont focuses on lax controls at yacht marinas in Marsamxett.
The overseas press
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the secret organisation that authorizes the operations and programmes of the NSA, has again ruled that the agency could keep collecting every American’s telephone records every day. The ruling came in the midst of duelling decisions in two other federal courts about whether the surveillance programme is constitutional.
Global Post quotes aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières in the Central African Republic saying the situation at a camp sheltering 100,000 displaced people in the capital Bongi, has deteriorated over the past few days. The BBC says that in recent days unknown gunmen had fired directly into the camp and the MSF clinic, killing at least three children. There were shortages of food and water.
As fighting in South Sudan continues, Ethiopia TV says direct talks between the government of President Salva Kiir and the rebel forces his former deputy Riek Machar began in Addis Ababa. Both sides met regional mediators separately yesterday amid efforts to end three weeks of violence in the world’s newest nation. Fighting was reported on the edge of the city of Bor.
Fox News says bitterly cold weather continues to grip the northeast of the United States in the wake of heavy snowfalls across the region. More than 10 people have died, including a man crushed when a huge pile of salt used for de-icing roads fell on him.
Iraqi security forces and allied tribesmen killed 62 Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the Ramadi area west of Baghdad on Friday. A senior leader of the Sahwa militia told AFP 16 members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group were killed in Khaldiyah, east of Ramadi, while 46 more died in the city itself.
A Chinese icebreaker that went to the aid of a Russian ship stuck in heavy floes in Antarctica has now itself become trapped by ice. ABC quotes Australian officials saying the Xue Long, which on Thursday used its helicopter to ferry those onboard the stranded Russian ship to the safety of an Australian vessel, has been unable to free itself.
Le Monde says French authorities investigating Michael Schumacher’s skiing accident are inspecting a camera attached to the Formula One legend’s helmet. A source close to the investigation said that investigators were questioning Schumacher’s teenage son, who was with the German racing champion when the accident took place last weekend.
Russia Today reports Russian President Vladimir Putin donned a black ski-suit along with Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev for a run close to a complex that will be used for downhill and biathlon competitions in the Olympics. The Winter Olympic Games are to take place February 7-23. Putin’s visit, which a spokesman said would last several days, comes after suicide bombings December 29 and 30 in the southern city of Volgograd, 700 kilometres from Sochi, that counted as the deadliest attacks in Russia in three years.
Spain’s COPE radio says nuns in a convent in southern Spain were surprise by an answerphone message they received from Pope Francis on New Year’s Eve. The Pope, who was previously archbishop of Buenos Aires, knew some of the nuns at the convent as they also are from Argentina. The nuns were at prayer when the Pope rang. On hearing the message, they rang their bishop to try to get back in contact, but the Pope rang back in the evening. Sister Adriana, the prioress of the convent, told COPE radio “she wanted to die” on hearing the message.
The Los Angeles Times announces the death in California of US musician Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers from lung disease. He was 74. Phil Everly and his brother Don made up the Everly Brothers, one of the biggest pop acts of the 1950s and early 1960s. They had a string of close-harmony hits including Wake Up Little Suzie, Cathy’s Clown, Bye Bye Love, and All I Have To Do Is Dream.